Park View Uses Big Second Half from Big Man Mulabah

By Dan Sousa
LoudounPrepSports.com Editor

Sterling (Dec. 20, 2007) – All things being equal, it’s nice to be tall in basketball and the Park View High School boys basketball team can throw a lot of nice at opponents this season with wide body Thomas Mulabah shorter than five of his Patriot teammates including 6-foot-7 back-up center Brock Pennington, 6-5 forward Kenny Smith and a pair of 6-4 swimgmen in Danny Foley and Brett Dufford.

Mulabah is listed at just 6-foot-2, but perhaps nobody in the Dulles District can fill the paint and command attention like Mulabah who scored 17 of his game-high 19 points in the second half Tuesday to lead his team to a 72-63 AA Dulles District opener win over previously unbeaten Loudoun County.

“Mulabah was a beast inside,” said Loudoun County coach Brian Blubaugh, who watched his team fall after opening the year with seven straight wins, the school’s best start to a boys hoops season in many years.

Mulabah is a study in contrasts as the nearly 300-pounder can use brute force inside, but often weaves and pivots through traffic with moves that might make a ballerina proud.

Park View’s size against the Raiders, as it will be against most Dulles teams this season, was a factor as County often had four players at 6-1 or smaller on the floor and the Raiders leading scorer, senior Donne Lucas, at 6-4 was often tasked with containing Mulabah.

“We thought there was going to be a mismatch somewhere,” said Park View coach Jeff Schneider after his team improved to 4-2 on the season.

Junior point guard Joe Bushrod scored a team-high 18 for the Raiders and Lucas added 17 with junior Brett Tagg (10), junior Timmy McLister (9) and senior Rick Cottom (9) nearly giving County five in double figures, but no other scoring support came from the bench.

Park View on the other hand had eight players score including senior Foley, who attacks the rim on a dunk as if he is gathering in a C.J. Leizear pass in the end zone in football, with 17. Junior Marcus Freedom finished with nine and seniors Leizear (8) and Dufford (7) added support with junior Smith, still recovering his game shape from a knee injury suffered during football, and senior Pennington combining for nine and junior Josh Jones finishing with three.

“We looked at this as a big game,” said Mulabah after the early-season showdown.

Held to two points in the first half, Mulabah the first eight Park View points in the third quarter as Park View utilized both Smith and Mulabah, a double wide offensive, down low against the Raiders.

It was just a one-point game heading into the final quarter after a flurry of late activity that saw the Raiders erase a seven-point deficit behind the outside shooting of Tagg and McLister and the penetration of Bushrod. A Tagg 3-pointer put LC up 45-43 with just seconds to go in the half, but the Pats rushed the ball down the court and Freeman’s 3-pointer beat the buzzer to put PV ahead, 46-45.

LC, having played a one-game Monday night, was taking the court for the fourth time in six days, and LC looked a bit ragged as the final quarter started with a Park View 6-0 run that gave the Patriots a lead they would not give up. Mulabah started off the run with back-to-back baskets, the second on a follow, and then Dufford finished off a fast break to make it 52-45.

Bushrod twice brought LC within three but Park View had an answer each time, once with Leizear knocking down a 3-pointer and another time with Mulabah scoring off a nice Foley feed. That basket made it 59-54 with 2:55 to play and Park View followed up with a drive by Jones and another Leizear jumper to make it 63-54 with 1:50 left.

The Raiders got a couple of more 3-pointers from Bushrod and McLister but PV took care of things at the line in the last minute, Mulabah had another basket in the paint and dished off to Foley for the final PV field goal.